Marc Cucurella takes huge shots at Chelsea hierarchy over TWO boardroom blunders | OneFootball

Marc Cucurella has heavily criticised Chelsea’s board over two major blunders, as the Blues battle to secure a Champions League spot after a disastrous run of results under Liam Rosenior.

The Stamford Bridge outfit currently sit sixth in the table, a point behind fifth-placed Liverpool, with the top five almost certain to qualify for next season’s Champions League. However, they’ve lost their last four games, including three of their last four league outings in a shocking run of form at the business end of the campaign.

And Cucurella has hit out at the club’s decision to sack Enzo Maresca in the first place, with the Italian leaving at the start of January, less than six months after winning the Club World Cup at the end of his first season at Chelsea.

Maresca was shown the door after a poor run of results in December, while he was also at odds with club bosses, having secured a top-four finish last season and also winning the Conference League.

While everything was rosy during Rosenior‘s early stint in charge, a semi-final defeat to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup followed by an humiliating 8-2 aggregate loss to PSG in the Champions League has led to question marks over the 41-year-old’s tenure.

Indeed, our very own Fraser Fletcher reported recently that Chelsea are keeping a close eye on Cesc Fabregas as a potential replacement for Rosenior should they decide to part company with their head coach at the end of this season.

And, while Cucurella has given his backing to the current Blues boss, he firmly believes that Chelsea have created an issue of their own making for axing Maresca in the first place.

“Liam is a very good person and has been great at handling the group, the characters,” Cucurella told The Athletic. “He likes to stay close to us and his football ideas are good, but we don’t have the time to train them.

“We train on (playing in) competitive games, because we play every three days and that leaves you with no time to work on the training ground.

“In this context, it is normal that your plans sometimes don’t work out, and then we go through difficult moments.

“With Enzo Maresca in charge, we were more stable, because we worked together for 18 months. If you look at our first pre-season with him, there were doubts.

“You need a process for every player to understand what we need to do. In our last months with Maresca, we played almost by heart. If we changed the system, we knew what we had to do. You need that time.

“Look at Arsenal now, who are fighting for every trophy. They’ve been with (Mikel) Arteta for almost seven years and they have not won much. But that trust in the project gives rewards.”

Cucurella added, in yet more praise for Maresca: “We knew what Maresca wanted from us. Winning a title like the Club World Cup also helps, strengthens the bond, and you create great relationships during the celebrations.

“When a manager gives you that confidence and offers you a platform to fight for titles, you’d die for him.

“The moment Maresca left, it had a big impact on us. These are decisions taken by the club. If you asked me, I would not have made this decision.

“To make a change like that, the best thing is to wait until the end of the season. You would give everyone, the players and the new manager, time to get ready, have a full pre-season…

“The instability around the club comes from this, in a nutshell. We had a caretaker first, then a new manager, with new ideas and no time to work on them. It is what it is.”

Chelsea board come under fire over transfer business

Cucurella, meanwhile, also criticised Chelsea’s transfer policy, which has seen the club move for talented yet inexperienced players rather than fully established stars.

He added: “I understand this is part of the club’s policy, and that they want to take this direction – signing young players and looking to the future.

“But, for all of us who are still here and want to win big things, moments like this make you feel discouraged. We have a good core of players. The foundations are there.

“But to fight for major trophies such as the Premier League or the Champions League, you need more. Signing young players only might complicate achieving those goals.

“You need time as well, and I know the young players are the ones that will have the experience in the future. But you need to find the balance between both worlds.”

Next up for the Blues is an FA Cup quarter-final against League One side Port Vale after the international break this weekend.

Chelsea have firmly declared star attacker Cole Palmer as not for sale, TEAMtalk understands, despite significant interest from some of Europe’s leading clubs, including Manchester United.

Elsewhere, our sources can reveal that Arsenal and Chelsea are preparing to rival Liverpool for the signing of a top Real Madrid attacking star this summer, if the Spanish giants open the door to his departure, which is a concrete possibility.